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MTV Arabia has just announced that it will stop showing music videos during Ramadan. But it will continue to play programmes from MTV’s international roster of reality shows, celebrity news and pop culture documentaries.

The move highlights the delicate balance the international pop music channel faces in the region. While clamoring to reach its target youth audience, MTV Arabia has to first satisfy the elders in the region.

“The No. 1 thing we need to do is get acceptance. Because the minute you get the parents’ acceptance, it’s fine for them to leave the TV on MTV and go out with no worries. We have high censorship on what goes on air in terms of language, images, everything has high censorship,” Rasha Al Eman, the station’s head of productions and promotions told Communicate magazine in December last year.

It’s obviously this acceptance that the channel hopes to gain through this move. While playing more music videos wins MTV favor in most places, it is hoping that doing the opposite will work here. Do you think it will keep the station in favor?